How the Lotus Found Happiness
by AnarchicStorm
Summary: Lately Ren has been in a slump but nobody seems to notice. They just think he's being quiet as usual. But why would he ask that person to talk. It's not like they have anything in common. One-shot focused around Ren


Waiting is something I've become very good at over the years. Especially since coming to Beacon and having to help Nora with a large portion of work she isn't able to understand, mostly because all she does is sleep and dream about pancakes in those particular classes.

But waiting for Yang in my quiet hiding place away from the hustle and bustle of our two teams, was nerve racking. Sure looking back on it after we talked I don't know why I was nervous but I was.

"Hey Ren! Gotta say when I saw that the man of few words himself wanted to talk I had to check with Blake's scroll to see if was actually your number." Yang laughed as she approached. "Don't worry she doesn't know why I was looking on her scroll."

I nodded in response and waited for her to take a seat on the bench. When she did I turned to face her properly. "I guess I should explain."

"Would be a good start." Yang grinned widely. Everyone knows her smile is infectious and I found myself smiling too.

"We're friends, right?"

"Sure we are. We might not talk all that much but we're friends." Once again Yang spoke without breaking her smile.

"It's fine if you can't relate to where I'm coming from but I figured you would understand more than the rest of your team..." Yang's smile faltered for a split second.

"Even if I don't I'll still hear you out." I nodded in thanks and leaned back on the bench letting my head fall back so I could look up at the stars.

"Do you ever feel ignored."

"Ignored?"

"Yeah, I don't mean it like my team doesn't pay attention to me and I'm left out but I feel like I have little in common with the rest of my team besides the common goal of making sure Nora doesn't break something. I feel like my other team members are better known while I don't get acknowledged. Jaune is the master strategist who is oblivious to the fact Pyrrha is madly in love with him. Pyrrha is Pyrrha and the whole school knows Nora."

"No I get where you're coming from." Yang finally let her smile drop to a neutral expression. "Ruby is the youngest leader in history. Weiss is heiress to the Schnee company and Blake is an ex terrorist. You already know that story. And I'm know as the girl who has anger issues."

"At least your identified by something that expresses you as an individual. I'm just, Nora's boyfriend. Which I am not. Nobody seems to listen though."

"But I don't like being that person. I'd rather be nobody than universally recognized as somebody that punches her problems."

"I killed I King Taijitu during the initiation but everyone remembers me getting knocked the hell out because of the Deathstalker." At this point we were just venting at each other with stuff hardly related to what the last person said.

"For real!" I nodded. "Dude that is awesome!"

"Thanks, only thing Nora said to me after she saw me do it was Boop. She's like a little sister to me but she is clueless to the point where I want to knock her out."

"How long have you to known each other?"

"Hell if I know. As long as I can remember I guess." Yang laughed and shook her head.

"Yeah it's the same with me and Ruby. I love her but I wanna knock her out from time to time too." The two of us laughed and for a few moments, sat in silence.

"I know how you feel with the whole people thinking your dating Nora. The amount of Rumours that I like Blake is unreal. I love her without a doubt, but as an older sister figure for me. She and Sun are dating yet people still spread the rumour."

"Sucks, doesn't it?"

"Heck yeah it does." Once again we fell silent for a while until I realized how late it was.

"We should probably go back, it's getting late."

"People will start to talk." Yang mocked with her trademark grin.

"Better than the usual rumours that we're in love with people who are basically our sisters."

"Oh damn just when I thought I had forgotten the time a second year thought Ruby and I were a couple. Punched him through two walls and went about my business."

I cringed and shook my head. "Dude, that's gross."

"You know it. It's been fun talking with you Ren, don't get to here much out of you normally. I could get used to it."

"Don't expect a sudden change from me. Jaune would have a heart attack if I suddenly started being more social. Not to mention I would be bombarded with questions about where I go every other night."

"You saying you wanna make this a regular thing?"

"No, when it all gets too much for me I go for a walk and end up back there several times a week."

"If you ever want someone to talk to, Don't hesitate to let me know."

"Same goes for you." With a fist bump the two of us parted ways and went into our separate dorms for the night. Don't know about Yang but I sure felt better after finally being able to talk about all the crap that was getting me down.

"REN!" And the usual reaction from Nora upon my late return.

"Oh sup dude." Jaune hardly looking up from his textbook and Pyrrha offering a wave.

I headed to the bathroom and changed for bed quickly, feeling much better than I normally do. After sliding into bed I closed my eyes and fell asleep nearly instantly.

* * *

><p><p>

Professor Port's lecture was for the first time in a long time, bearable. Not even Nora's snoring annoyed me. Something Jaune definitely picked up on over the few days Yang and I had been hanging out every other night.

"You're in a good mood lately Ren. Something happen that you haven't told me yet?" Jaune asked while waggling his eyebrows.

"Nothing in particular. Just got a good feeling about today." I flt bad for lying to him but I didn't see why I should tell him about my late night rendezvous with Yang.

"Good to know." Jaune spoke louder than he realized and suddenly the whole room was staring at him.

"And what is good to know Mr. Arc?" Port boomed from his desk.

"Uhh.. The lesson?" It was half a question and half a statement. But port bought it. Sorta.

"What specifically of my lesson interests you the most young man."

"Your tenacity in the discovery of the Deathstalker hatching ground." Jaune repeated after Pyrrha whispered it to him while seemingly taking notes.

"Why yes. In fact the trick to finding the nest was..." Since he was talking abut himself I zoned out and looked around.

* * *

>Yang happened to be doing the same thing and stuck her tongue out at me when she saw me looking around. Smiling I casually flipped the bird without anybody else noticing. Yang grinned and returned the gesture, at that point Weiss noticed Yang not paying attention and jabbed her in the ribs with a pencil, if it wasn't for her inhuman resistance to pain she would have yelped in pain for sure.<p><p>

Later that day during combat training the rumours once again put me in a bad mood. They started up again once Nora latched onto me to help her stretch. Once she was done she ran off to target practice leaving me alone to listen to the rumours. With nothing to do I sat down against the wall and waited for instructions.

"Yo Ren! Goodwitch says if we aren't going for target practice we gotta pair up and spar, Jaune's getting better but I don't think he wants to go another round after last time." I winced at the memory. Yang kicked Jaune so hard in the ribs it to ten minutes just to get him out of the wall.

"So you pick me?"

"Yeah you're a hand to hand fighter like me so it should be an even fight." yang held her hand out and helped me up off my seat. Seeing the gleam in her eyes I flipped over her arm using my momentum from being pulled up to dodge the powerful punch the cracked the wall.

Before I had even hit the ground Yang lashed out with an elbow strike from her other arm which breezed over my head missing me by a hair's breadth. Hitting the ground with a crouch I spun around and whipped Yang's legs out from under her. She quickly recovered and flipped backwards to avoid any more blows.

Now that we had gotten started up both us of deployed our weapons and eyed each other carefully. Knowing full well that Yang's slender form was capable of inflicting unbelievable amounts of damage.

Thanks to years of practice I picked up on Yang's subtle movements in preparation to rush me. The way her muscles tensed in her legs and her body shifted ever so slightly.

Careful not to let her know I knew her next attack I kept my gaze the same but thanks to my clothing I was able to prepare myself for a block without her noticing. Time almost seemed to slow down once Yang kicked off. I focused my Aura into the palm of my hands and with my right hand blocked her swing and stopped her dead in her tracks. Jarring her arm. Quickly seizing my opportunity I drove a palm strike straight into her abdomen. Under normal circumstances that would be enough to send someone flying but Yang being Yang only got shoved back a few feet. No thanks to her practised footwork and hidden strength.

The next few minutes were a flurry of strikes, bullets, and blocked knives with neither of us wanting to relent. One last ditch effort later involving me tossing one of my Stormflower's at Yang to throw her off guard and lashed out with a spinning kick to the ribs. While Yang punched me straight in the face.

"Oww..." I could barely move after the adrenaline of the fight wore off. I could feel the swelling n my right eye already. Looking to my right where Yang got tossed she didn't seem much better. Curled up in the foetal position clutching her ribs.

"Students! Make way this instant."

"Ah crap." I heard Yang mutter as Professor Goodwitch storms up to us and starts to half berate us and half help us up to take us to the nurses office.

* * *

><p><p>

"Ren are you okay?!" Nora yelled from beside the bed. We were taken to the nurses office by Blake and Nora. Blake said nothing on the way, she just carried Yang dutifuly to bed and waited for the nurse to say Yang was going to be fine.

Nora however wouldn't leave. "Nora for the last time, I'm fine. I just need some rest and an ice pack and I'll be good."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Nora smiled happily and skipped out humming to herself.

"Yeah I can see why people would think you guys are together." Yang called from the bed beside mine after pulling her curtain away. I chuckled and shook my head.

"You pack a punch." A redundant statement as we are currently lying in the infirmary.

"And you are fast. Hope your not that quick with everything." I rolled my eyes at Yang's crude humour

"Wanna find out?" I grinned. I would imagine my face would be nothing less than a turn off at that point with an obvious black eye and split lip but I couldn't have cared less.

"Too sore. Next time Ladykiller." We both laughed but stopped when Yang's ribs forced her too.

When the pain died down Yang turned to face me, keeping her side off the bed. "You're a pretty cool guy Ren. Never would have thought so but your a good friend. I always wanted someone to be able to vent at. Not to mention you can take a punch so you make a good punching bag." I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"No for real dude. I'm glad yu wanted to talk last week. I would have called us friends back then but I think we're better friends now." Yang let a snort of amusement as she lay back on her side.

"What's so funny?"

"The fact nobody was puttwo and two together that we hang out at night. Even though I have heard Jaune and Ruby talking about us leaving our teams at night, and on the same days."

"They're great people but they are really dense sometimes."

* * *

>"No doubt about it buddy. No doubt about it." A few minutes of silence later I heard faint snoring from Yang's bed. I looked over and smiled. I wouldn't say it to her directly but I made sure not to hit her in the face. Be a shame to mess up a pretty face.<p><p>

After two days we were allowed out of the infirmary and were told to head straight to the cafeteria to get a proper meal.

"They just don't want us to go to Combat Practice and knock the crap out of each other again." Yang stated as we presented the note from the nurse to the cafeteria staff. It just gave us permission to get something to eat earlier than the other students.

Having sat down with our meals with Yang sitting down right beside me and eating like a horse. I couldn't say much, I had half my plate polished in minutes.

When we finished the two of us fell silent and relaxed.

"Ren."

"Hmm?" I turned to Yang and instead of her usual grin she had a bashful look on her face.

"When are you going to ask me out?" A huge blush found it's way to my face and I froze, unable to speak.

After a few moments Yang burst out laughing, slapping the table after slamming her head into it. Her raucous laughter echoed through the large and empty room.

"Oh man you should see the look on your face. Man that was priceless." Yang punched me in the arm and grinned.

"Don't scare me like that Yang." I had my hand over my heart in mock pain and we both started to laugh again.

"Wanna mess with our teammates?" Yang asked with a face that said. 'I have a bad idea but I'm gonna do it anyway.' If that's even an expression. I'm fairly sure it is.

"And how do you suggest we do that?"

* * *

><p><p>

Minutes after the bell rang for lunch to begin people began to stream into the cafetria and began to mill about and find their usual seats and get their meals.

Once our teams found us and sat down we exchanged the usual 'Glad to see you're better' Speil and they began to eat.

"Yang what was so funny? I could hear you laughing from all the way across the courtyard in the combat hall." Ruby asked, pointing to the open window high above.

The two of us exchanged a quick glance before I threw my arm over Yang's shoulders and smiled. "Just an inside joke."

"Inside joke?" Weiss asked with a confused expression. "Since when did you two get so buddy buddy. A few days ago you were knocking lumps out of each other and now you're side by side with your arms around each other..."

The table fell silent. "Lovers spat." Yang said confirming everyone's suspicions.

"Oh okay." Nora said with a shrug and went back to eating. The rest of Team RWBY and Jaune's mouth's were agape. Pyrrha was smiling happily.

"Wha- When- Where- huh?!" Ruby spoke a mile a minute. Trying to ask four questions at the same time.

"We weren't going to outright say it, we figured you guys would figure it out after we both kept leaving our dorms at night. At the same time." I interjected with my arm around Yang's waist and the other propping my head up.

I glanced around at everyone and noticed the cover of Blake's book had a character who looked alot like me. Minus the pink stripe in my hair, looking out from the cover and a blond girl in a ninjas outfit facing away from anybody looking at the covering. It was called Ninjas of Love.

I looked up and saw Blake holding a tissue to her nose while speed reading through her book. 'I wont ask...'

"Oh Ren! What time is the movie later?" Yang exclaimed from beside me. Since everyone sat to Yang's right and across from her, when she turned to face me only I caught her sly wink.

"Nine I think. We could go to the later one if you want." I couldn't wink back but she knew I got the message.

"No nine is fine." She pecked me on the cheek and turned to everyone else. "What are you all staring at?"

"Nothing." They all said in unison and dug into their lunch.

"Where's Blake?"

* * *

><p><p>

"This kinda backfired." I stated as we headed towards the airship dock under the very obvious watchful eye of team RWBY as they stared at us from their window. I kept a broad smile though so as to not raise suspicion.

Yang laughed and sauntered over to me dressed in her usual clothes. "Might as well make a night of it anyway. What's the worst that could happen." I held out my hand for her to take and we walked over to the shuttle service that ran from the school to the city.

Once we were on the ship Yang funnily enough didn't let go of my hand and chose to push me into a seat. Once she did that She flopped onto the long couch like seat and put her head on my lap and looked up at me. "There's other people on the ship. Might as well make it look real in case they talk."

I didn't really see the logic behind that but obliged anyway and played along, brushing some stray hair from her face. "I'm starting to think you weren't joking when you asked me to ask you out." I said after a few minutes into the flight. I only said it as a joke but wasn't expecting the answer I got whatsoever.

"Maybe I wasn't."

Once again I was stunned into silence, half expecting Yang to burst out laughing again but she didn't. "You're not joking this time?"

"Nope. I only said I was the first time so I could convince you to play along."

"Miss Xiao Long, you are a crafty lady." I smiled down at her.

"So is that a yes?" I answered her by leaning down and kissing her gently. "That's a yes." She grinned and sat up.

"So you wanna go see a movie?"

Yang laughed and pecked me on the cheek. "Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

><p><p>

**I thought of this while thinking about how little proper screen time Ren got outside of being with his full team from then I started to formulate Ren being alot happier when he is acknowledged for his skills. For example single handedly killing a giant ass two headed snake. I hoped you enjoyed and if enough people want me to make this into a story I'll consider it but for now this story is done.**


End file.
